I am looking at purchasing a new monitor, currently have this one Sony SDM-HS95P/B and am looking for a good quality ($200-$350) 23 or 24 incher to replace it (have nothing I can excuse upgrading on my system and still have the itch, plus just got a exercise bike and am excusing the purchase with needing a bigger screen to watch top gear ). I have heard lots of good things about the Dell Ultrasharp series and there is currently a sale on the following monitors.

I trust the advice of the people on this forum more then anywhere so I just wanted to pose a few questions.

1. Are these really the best 23-24 inch monitors in my price range, or should I be looking at other models as well (there is no rush to purchase so I will be hunting for deals on NCIX and CC anyways)2. Is there any difference between the two dell monitors besides the inch that I am missing (100$ for 1 inch seems a lot), on the same note I have heard people raving about the 16:10 aspect ratio is it noticeably better? (I know this is very subjective but I am curious about your opinions.3. I have gone through the silent monitor survey and the 2412M seems to perform pretty well, any experience with the 2312HM or warnings?4. Since I would be substantially upping my resolution 1280 x 1024 --> 1920 x 1200 would my overclocked 5670 with 512Ram still be able to handle high settings in say, diablo 3? It ran the open beta really well maxed out so I figured it should be fine.5. Am I being silly upgrading from this monitor in the first place, it was a hand me down and I like the picture but don't really know about the specs and whether I would get a substantially better picture on a new one.6. Any other thoughts, your advice is always appreciated.

I have had a lot of success with Samsung monitors. I would strongly encourage you to buy a monitor with a pivot function that permits you to operate it in portrait mode. I find this capability exceedingly helpful when doing certain tasks.... one of which is wading through email.

Newegg, which I think sells in Canada... is one of the few major retailers that carries monitors with the pivot feature. As I am writing this I am using a Samsung monitor, with a pivot capability, that cost about $300 at newegg. It is running at 1600x1200 but is capable of 1920x1440... and it will easily and quickly switch from landscape to portrait (using ctrl/arrow combination) and or from 1600x1200 to 1920x1440 (you just use your mouse to click on the ever present Intel display icon in the lower taskbar on the right in Windows XP).

I think if you do a lot of photoshop production work... you need something better and more costly... but you don't appear to be doing that... and if you did you would have much stronger preformed opinions as to what your needs are.

Subjective of course. People buy these monitors because of the IPS panels, so you will like them if you value colour accuracy and wide viewing angle (I see your Sony monitor has similar viewing angles, so maybe it is IPS too).

I don't really care if a monitor is 16:9 or 16:10, but the extra 120 vertical pixels are useful, so I would prefer the larger one (and in fact I did get one last year).

I don't know how the picture quality would compare, but 1280x1024 is pretty small nowadays. Higher resolutions are very worthwhile for both gaming and real work.

You only have one monitor at the moment? Get a new one and keep your old one connected, and never look back!

I got the U2412m yesterday, and I like it very much. The on-screen controls are pretty easy to use.I went from 1680x1050 to 1920x1200 and am thoroughly enjoying the extra real estate. Connectedthe Dell AX510 sound bar to it, no problems and plenty loud. With the sound bar on the monitorprecious desk space is conserved.

2. Is there any difference between the two dell monitors besides the inch that I am missing (100$ for 1 inch seems a lot), on the same note I have heard people raving about the 16:10 aspect ratio is it noticeably better? (I know this is very subjective but I am curious about your opinions.

It used to matter more with the previous generation (i.e. 2410 vs. the 2311), since the 2410 had many more inputs and a true 8-bit IPS panel (and weirdly huge color gamut). The 2311, 2312, and 2412 all use a 6-bit eIPS panel with some fancy tech to emulate 8-bits in each color channel. Most users (myself included) can't tell the difference, but it doesn't matter if you're only comparing the 2312 and 2412, anyway.

Anyway, Dell basically cut all the frills for the 2412m, so the only real difference is aspect ratio. My guess is that the market is pretty flooded with 16:9 panels, which is why the 2312 always has some good sale going on, whereas there's not much competition in the 16:10 sector.

Unfortunately tax return didn't end up being all it was made out to be (damn CRA) so I will probably be putting this off till black friday/boxing day when I'll look for deals on the 2412m. Hope the info in this thread can help others out though!

As I am writing this I am using a Samsung monitor, with a pivot capability, that cost about $300 at newegg. It is running at 1600x1200 but is capable of 1920x1440...

What model is it? And why are you running it at only 1600 x 1200?

It is a samsung 2443BWT-1RT. For whatever reason the intel driver won't show me the bottom task bar at higher resolutions... or actually it won't display part of the bottom of the screen, which includes the task bar.

For some reason the Intel driver does not offer me an option for 1920 x 1200. It does offer 1920 by 1440 though.

What if I were to use the Samsung Video driver. That would probably drive a resolution of 1920 x 1200.

Can anyone tell me if I would, or would not, be able to use non-samsung monitors with the samsung drivers... or whether once I use the Samsung drivers I can still swap other types of monitors in and out without any problems?

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